Based on the data from the international student assessment study PISA, this research examines student interest in science as pointed out by measures of knowledge, affect, and value, and compares findings between four countries with contrasting cultural values. The authors argue that whilst levels of knowledge, value, and affect need to be understood in relation to the students’ cultural context, in general, an individual’s motivation for future participation in science, whatever their nationality, seems to be indicated by their current levels of enjoyment of science.
Scientists regularly use interactive visualizations and models of abstract phenomena in their work. There is a growing body of evidence showing students could also benefit from interactive visualizations. This study compared the impact of inquiry-based science instruction incorporating interactive visualizations with that of traditional instruction on students’ knowledge integration across science courses.
This design experiment integrated students’ everyday discourses and knowledge into classroom scientific practice, thereby allowing for the creation of hybrid spaces, where students were able to meaningfully apply science learning to their everyday lives. This research shows that providing students with opportunities to co-author their learning can engage students more deeply.
This study investigates the relationship between science learning, science learning identities, and student agency. To support the development of science learning identities, the authors argue for the need to provide children/youth with opportunities to engage with science in ways that meaningfully blend the world of science with students' social worlds. This paper can help ISE educators leading youth programs consider the ways they listen to voices and interests of children/youth in order to affirm and support their development of identities as productive science learners.
Previous research studies have found that many new teachers feel inadequately prepared to teach science (cf. Kelly, 2000). This situation may be attributable to a number of factors, although the nature of teacher preparation courses is clearly significant. This research describes a teaching training initiative in which teacher candidates are engaged in internships in an afterschool programme. The findings, comprising the teacher candidates’ drawings and interviews, indicate that the experience positively influenced the participants’ professional identity development as science teachers.
How do students understand through talk and interaction with their resources? This series of articles reviews conceptual change through social interaction, learning opportunities that support students’ gaining understanding of genetics, and institutional constraints that influence students’ discussions.
This study is a summary of the review of the research literature of afterschool quality frameworks. It presents the debates on program effectiveness to help organizations, policymakers, funders, and evaluators make decisions about afterschool programming. This review is of help to ISE educators and program directors in understanding the current trends in outcomes-based programming, while grounding the conversation in the complexity and range of relevant developmental tasks.
If student interest in science is a predictor of careers in science, how can we characterize student interest across ages? Analyzing 6,000 questions from students gathered from informal science settings such as questions submitted to TV shows or Ask-a-Scientist websites, this study classifies student interest in science into six clusters. Younger students (K-9) showed interest in zoology, technology, and astrophysics while older students (10–12) showed interest in physics, chemistry, and biology. This shift of interest to science topics covered in school is relevant to informal science
Successfully combining youth development with workforce preparation means creating opportunities for work-based learning, where youth are learning workplace skills through work rather than learning about a specific career path. This paper summarizes the ways in which workforce skills such as communication, critical thinking, leadership, and teamwork can be cultivated through three types of program models: “value-added,” “growing your own,” and employer partnerships.
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resourceresearchMuseum and Science Center Exhibits
The authors of this paper were interested in knowing how parents can support exploratory behaviors of their preschool-aged children at museum exhibits. They developed a quantitative instrument based on psychological literature on exploration and play in order to describe and quantify young children's increasing levels of exploration of their environment. They then tested the measurement tool with parents and their preschool-aged children to investigate what types of adult coaching would achieve high-level exploratory behavior at various exhibits.
This study is an examination of the patterns of explanation in adult museum visitors about evolution and creationism, and the coherence of their reasoning patterns, including the persistence of intuitive childhood beliefs. The responses of all the visitors were a mix of novice naturalistic (intuitive), informed naturalistic (evolutionary), and creationist reasoning patterns. This paper can be of help to science educators to recognize different patterns of visitors’ reasoning about evolution to support the development of a more informed understanding of natural selection, the micro- and macro-
The paper describes how middle school students appropriated and transformed a particular learning experience in an afterschool literacy program in Philadelphia. The learning experience was designed to ensure that urban African-American, middle school girls had access to technology and learned how to use it to create a web page that showcased future career aspirations. The program’s director enlisted the help of male, Caucasian high school students from the suburbs of Philadelphia to facilitate the technology learning experience for the middle school youth (both girls and boys were in the